Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic: Day 6- Rothrock Tussey Mountain

Day 6—Rockrock Tussey Mountain presented by BMC

In Stage 6 of the Trans-Sylvania Epic, Justin Lindine (Redline) continued to build his lead in the Open Men's competition, while Amanda Carey and her NoTubes teammates regained lost time.

Known as the “Queen Stage” of the race, Stage 6 presented by BMC takes riders over some of the most known and loved trails in Rothrock State Forest. Most notably, riders transverse Tussey Ridge. A few years ago, the Ridge caught fire, burning the foliage from the trees in a large region at the top. As a result, the Ridge’s leafless trees provide a picturesque view of the valley below from the beautiful, open trail covered in ferns.


With one enduro segment spanning Tussey Ridge and a second that dropped from “The Ridge” to the valley floor, riders faced 4900 feet of climbing over 40 miles. Adding to the tough characteristics of the course, the heat and humidity would create further problems for many racers throughout the key stage.

Open Men

In Stage 6, Justin Lindine (Redline) defended his NoTubes Leader’s jersey while extending his lead over his competitors with another first-place finish. Second-place finisher Sam Koerber (Progold) built a small gap exiting the second enduro stage, but Lindine put in an intense attack that allowed him to quickly surpass Koerber and gain almost three minutes in the last few miles of the course.

Lindine and third-place finisher Brian Matter (RACC/Trek/Progold) developed an early lead over Koerber heading into Jon Wert trail. Though almost a minute behind the race leaders, Koerber was able to close the gap on the technical, rocky flats of Jon Wert. The three riders would proceed to take short attacks against the others over the remainder of the course.

“I definitely had a few times were I was under a little bit of pressure,” Lindine said, “All day these guys were putting the pressure on.”

After dropping his chain on Three Bridges trail, Lindine chased down an attack from Brian Matter going up the road climb to Tussey Ridge. Once on the ridge, Koerber used his technical abilities to push the pace again and develop his small lead. But the long week caught up to Koerber, who was unable to sustain his advantage on the road segment. “Seven days is tough,” remarked Koerber, “today was the first day I really felt the fatigue.” With an additional three minutes added to his GC lead from today’s finish, Lindine plans to “sit back a little and just be defensive” in the seventh and final stage of the race.


Open Women

After losing a significant amount of time in Stage 5 from going off-course, the Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women put in an aggressive ride to regain their lost time and secure the top podium positions in the GC. Amanda Carey finished first, while Sue Haywood and Sarah Kaufmann took second and third, respectively, to move back up to the GC podium.


In the early stages of the race, Andrea Wilson—yesterday’s stage winner—worked hard to stay with the lead group of women and retain her time advantage in GC. However, the pace would prove too aggressive for Wilson, who would eventually drop away from the lead group and yield over half an hour to stage winner Carey.

Wilson’s finish would drop her down two positions to fourth in the overall standings, while Sue Haywood moved up to second and Sarah Kaufmann moved up to third. Carey holds a confident fourteen-minute lead over second place.


Single Speed
In the single speed competition, the day began with the typical neck-to-neck racing between race leader Matt Ferrari (FreezeThaw/Hubcap Cycles) and second-place Dax Massey(Breck Epic/Honey Stinger/Light and Motion).


“Dax was going a little slow on the climbs yesterday, so I decided to try to turn the heat up early on,” said Ferrari. “I dropped him on the first couple and he would catch back up on the trail when I was trying to recover.”

Dax rode persistently with Ferrari for most of the race. But when the riders entered Tussey Ridge, Ferrari found the day’s heat unbearable. A local rider, Ferrari commented, “I was dabbing on rocks I’ve ridden a hundred times.” Pulling back his pace, Ferrari allowed Massey to develop a sizeable lead that would grow to two minutes at the end of the day. Dejay Birtch (Ride for Reading/Stan’s NoTubes/Maxxis/Pivot) finished third in the stage.







Despite the strong finish in today’s stage, Ferrari retains the Single Speed leader’s jersey by twelve minutes over Massey.

The final day of racing will be going down today! Be sure to check back for the final results after seven days of racing!


Written by Tim Darwick

Photos by Devon Balet.